Paper Number: 2059 New Geochronological, Isotopic and Fluid Inclusion Study Constraints on the Formation of the World-class Bikita LCT Pegmatite Deposit Dittrich, T.1, Seifert, T.1, Richter, L.1, Hagemann, S.2, Lüders, V.3, Schulz, B.1, Pfänder, J.A.4 and Gerdes, A.5 1Division of Economic Geology and Petrology, TU Bergakademie Freiberg/Germany
[email protected] freiberg.de 2University of Western Australia, Centre for Exploration Targeting, Crawley/Australia 3Helmholtz Centre Potsdam, GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, Potsdam/Germany 4ArgonLab Freiberg, Department of Geology, TU Bergakademie Freiberg/Germany 5Institute for Geosciences, Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main/Germany ___________________________________________________________________________________________ The increasing demand for metals such as Li and Ta used by high technology applications (e.g., renewable energies, electronics) led to increasing exploration activities on lithium-cesium-tantalum (LCT) pegmatite deposits worldwide. LCT pegmatites are interpreted to be linked to granitic systems and represent the geochemically most enriched, highest fractionated portions of initially granitic melts and thus can host economic quantities of various metals (i.e., Li, Cs, Ta, Nb, Sn, Rb, Be). However, many economic LCT pegmatite deposits (e.g., Tanco/Canada, Greenbushes, Wodgina/Western Australia) are situated in greenstone belt successions on Archean Cratons making those prospective exploration areas [1]. The Bikita LCT pegmatite deposit located in the Zimbabwe Craton represents a typical example of Archean LCT pegmatites. The pegmatites are hosted by metavolcanic rocks of the Masvingo greenstone belt [2] and represent the highest evolved portions of a 20 km long NE-SW striking pegmatite field. The Bikita pegmatite is currently mined for Li (petalite) and Cs (pollucite).